Gaming dilemma: Steam Deck and Xbox One S or Nintendo Switch & Xbox Series X

I've a small amount of money left over from my annual bonus and I'm looking to expand / upgrade my gaming options.

Currently I have an Xbox One S and I mostly play Forza Motorsport 7, Forza Horizon 4 & 5, GTA 5 and Halo. I've also just bought a 4k TV so upgrading to an Xbox Series X seems appealing although not essential.

I primarily want to add a handheld Console as this will give me a lot more flexibility. Currently I'm mostly limited to late night Xbox sessions when my.wife and daughters are in bed.

The Steam Deck seems to be the prime candidate but even though I'll be buying used it's realy pushing my budget to get one with adequate memory and accessories. So that may not leave much money for games, at least until my birthday in June. I also worry that it may not be a smooth plug and play experience.

The Nintendo Switch appeals because of the low price point (again used) especially if I go for the lite option, and the plug and play usability. If I go for the Switch there should be money left over to then be able to get an Xbox Series X in the near future and sell my current Xbox One S.

So in summary I'm either thinking of:

1. Keeping the Xbox One S and buying a Steam Deck

2. Upgrading to an Xbox Series X and buying a Nintendo Switch (lite?)

I'm struggling to decide from the above options. If I buy the Steam Deck maybe the Xbox will become pretty redundant anyway or if I go for the 2nd option maybe that provides the optimal mix of playing the latest games on Xbox Series X and plug and play handheld gaming on the Swtich?

Any experiences from current owners of these consoles would be helpful please. For example, does the Switch stack up as a handheld gaming console for adults and if so which are the essential / most addictive games? How user friendly is the Steam Deck experience and is it worth the significant premium over the Switch? Where is the best place to buy cheap Steam Deck games?

I have a PS4 Pro, Switch OLED and Steam Deck. The switch has some top games, Zelda and many of the Mario games. Great but given your interests a limited library IMO. The Steam Deck has been great so far. I bought one used here with 512gb ssd and a 512gb microSD. It’s been great for Jedi Fallen Order, GTAV, Days Gone and Cyberpunk. I also have Horizon for it. It will also play games like Elden Ring and Spider-Man, Far Cry 6 and many others. You can also hook up to a TV and use a Bluetooth controller. The PS4 is almost exclusively used for Fortnite now. With Xbox Game Pass there seems less need for an actual Xbox. As my Steam library grows I’m thinking instead is a PS5 I may go with a PC instead but for now really enjoying my options. The Steam Deck is also an emulation monster by all accounts though I’ve not gone down that route yet.

I personally found the games and car physics on the switch rather childish & I didn’t keep it for long. Even some of the more adult games felt a bit more cartoonish than I’ve been used to over the years. That said, this was my first Nintendo.

Mainly bought for my commute but Covid put that to an end.

I’m in the PS5 ecosystem, where there is a handheld that connects to the system, but I’m not going to play on that while my wife watches tv as rather have some things we do together after the day apart.

I have a Series X and a Steamdeck. Tbh I don’t play the latter that much compared to the Xbox. But I got the Steamdeck mainly for emulation which it is v good for. I got the cheapest model in a Steam sale and upgraded the internal drive which is pretty easy to do. With Steam OS you can play Xbox games via Xcloud or create a windows boot drive and play pc Gamepass game native if you want. Steam games are always on sale and are cheaper anyway most of the time compared to console equivalents or look at Humble bundles to create a quick library of games. I find the turn base, puzzle or SP games easier on the deck due to the screen size. Something like Vampire Survivours is a perfect fit.

I’d go for the Steam Deck OLED and Nvidia GeForce NOW Ultimate. I use it a lot more since getting it at Christmas than my Switch, PS5 and gaming PC. My son uses the Series X almost exclusively.

The Steam Deck is so much more convenient. I can game when my wife wants to watch the TV.

Thanks for all your inputs. As I expected the consensus is overwhelmingly in favour of the Steam Deck. It's made up my mind that I need to get one.

I can't afford the OLED version unfortunately but I'll go for the standard 256 or 512 GB. I know the 64 GB drive can be switched out but I'm looking for as much of a plug and play experience as possible rather than tinkering.

Any recommendations on must have games?

I’ve been pondering the same question recently but the battery life of the steam deck is the killer for me.

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Originally Posted by jmarchitect

I’ve been pondering the same question recently but the battery life of the steam deck is the killer for me.

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The OLED is better than the OG battery wise. I just carry a power bank. To be honest I get a couple of hours on Days Gone which is more than enough in a single sitting 🤣

Buying direct from Steam, the only LCD model available is the 256GB at £349. The 512GB OLED is £479. It has a massively better screen, better performance thanks to faster memory and longer battery life thanks to the larger battery. The OLED screen is 90Hz and is tunable down if you want to save power. The LCD is 60Hz.

I have no issue with battery life. I can play RDR2 for 2.5 hours at 45Hz with a solid 45fps. I can play on GeForce NOW for 6+ hours with maximum settings on any game.

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Originally Posted by Phil Lee

Buying direct from Steam, the only LCD model available is the 256GB at £349. The 512GB OLED is £479. It has a massively better screen, better performance thanks to faster memory and longer battery life thanks to the larger battery. The OLED screen is 90Hz and is tunable down if you want to save power. The LCD is 60Hz.

I have no issue with battery life. I can play RDR2 for 2.5 hours at 45Hz with a solid 45fps. I can play on GeForce NOW for 6+ hours with maximum settings on any game.

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Thanks for the advice. My budget is very tight after recent car, TV and tablet purchases so I'll be buying a second hand Steam Deck 256 or 512 GB. I just can't stretch to an OLED model unfortunately, even second hand.

Battery life shouldn't be an issue as 99% of the time I'll be playing at home with access to a wall socket.

Just adding to this thread. I had a Steam Deck and just bought a Lenovo Legion go. The Legion is just so much better than the Steam deck and easier to use, particularly if you have Game Pass. It's like a whole new generation machine.

Very is currently doing 10% off. Worth considering- it's certainly far better than the Steam Deck OLED unless you have your whole library on Valve. You can actually play AAA games on the Lenovo

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Originally Posted by ryanb741

Just adding to this thread. I had a Steam Deck and just bought a Lenovo Legion go. The Legion is just so much better than the Steam deck and easier to use, particularly if you have Game Pass. It's like a whole new generation machine.

Very is currently doing 10% off. Worth considering- it's certainly far better than the Steam Deck OLED unless you have your whole library on Valve. You can actually play AAA games on the Lenovo

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How is it to hold though, it’s enormous isn’t it? I’m happy with the deck for now but wondered how portable the Go is.

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Originally Posted by dougair

How is it to hold though, it’s enormous isn’t it? I’m happy with the deck for now but wondered how portable the Go is.

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It is bigger yes (has bigger screen) but not overly heavy. It's less 'portable' as takes more room. There's the option of the ASUS ROG also which is smaller.

The Go can be used as a laptop replacement I reckon, it has a stand also so you can use it to watch movies comfortably. I'm impressed with the spec. Only thing I wish was better are the speakers.

As an aside you can play AAA games on it. For example Alan Wake 2 runs fine, 144hz screen. I get only about 35 frames a second with graphics settings up but it's not a FPS so that's OK.

Forward at 1080P is around 80 FPS, over 100 at 800P resolution which is absolutely fine on a handheld screen.

You can detach the controllers and use them as joypads or you can dock one of them and it turns it into a kind of mouse/joystick hybrid thing for FPS.

I understand the Steam Deck can be found cheap pre owned and that's fair enough but nobody should be buying a new OLED steam deck over the Lenovo

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Originally Posted by ryanb741

As an aside you can play AAA games on it. For example Alan Wake 2 runs fine, 144hz screen. I get only about 35 frames a second with graphics settings up but it's not a FPS so that's OK.

Forward at 1080P is around 80 FPS, over 100 at 800P resolution which is absolutely fine on a handheld screen.

You can detach the controllers and use them as joypads or you can dock one of them and it turns it into a kind of mouse/joystick hybrid thing for FPS.

I understand the Steam Deck can be found cheap pre owned and that's fair enough but nobody should be buying a new OLED steam deck over the Lenovo

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I opted for the steam deck as second hand as I wanted to try PC gaming. I only paid £275 with 1TB which I was happy with. May upgrade later but wasn’t ready to pay £600+. I do like the look of the Go and the bigger screen will help with my crap eyesight but so far haven’t put the Deck down. Finished Days Gone but also have Cyberpunk and Horizon Dawn to work through!

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Originally Posted by dougair

I opted for the steam deck as second hand as I wanted to try PC gaming. I only paid £275 with 1TB which I was happy with. May upgrade later but wasn’t ready to pay £600+. I do like the look of the Go and the bigger screen will help with my crap eyesight but so far haven’t put the Deck down. Finished Days Gone but also have Cyberpunk and Horizon Dawn to work through!

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£275 for 1 tb is great value! Enjoy!

Keep the Xbox, buy the Steam Deck, subscribe to Game Pass, and you've got a fairly slick overall experience that can in part move with you. It will take a small amount of effort but it's a very well trodden path.

Yep and you wont notice a whole lot of difference between the X and S in most games in my experience.

I just got 2 years of game pass ultimate for under 100 euro which is immense value.

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Originally Posted by cyrusir

Yep and you wont notice a whole lot of difference between the X and S in most games in my experience.

I just got 2 years of game pass ultimate for under 100 euro which is immense value.

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Even more value is you do MS Rewards. At Xmas I bought 18 months GP Ultimate for points rather than cash. Even with the recent changes to GP you can probably get a months free each month in points. I reckon I have another 24 months of Ultimate in my points balance currently.

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Originally Posted by reecie

Even more value is you do MS Rewards. At Xmas I bought 18 months GP Ultimate for points rather than cash. Even with the recent changes to GP you can probably get a months free each month in points. I reckon I have another 24 months of Ultimate in my points balance currently.

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Really? What do you do to get rewarded?

Thanks for all the comments. In the end I bought a second hand Steam Deck 256GB on ebay. It's a fantastic bit of kit and as others have said, literally a game changer. Not being tied to the TV opens up more gaming time for me.

I've also bought a memory card and so far I've been playing the following which run great on the deck (after researching the optimal graphics settings online):

Forza Horizon 5
GTA 5
Cyberpunk 2077
No Mans Sky

Playing the Legion Go this evening in the dark, even with the resolution cranked up it still runs smoothly with a fast frame rate. I just use Gamepass and play games off that.
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